An empirical study of the impact of human activity on long-term temperature change in China: A perspective from energy consumption

Human activity is an important contributor to local temperature change, especially in urban areas. Energy consumption is treated here as an index of the intensity of human induced local thermal forcing. The relationship between energy consumption and temperature change is analyzed in China by Observation Minus Reanalysis (OMR) method. Temperature trends for observation, reanalysis and OMR are estimated from meteorological records and 2 m-temperature from NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis 1 for the period 1979-2007. A spatial mapping scheme based on the spatial and temporal relationship between energy consumption and Gross Domestic Production (GDP) is developed to derive the spatial distribution of energy consumption of China in 2003. A positive relationship between energy consumption and OMR trends is found in high and mid energy consumption region. OMR trends decline with the decreasing intensity of human activity from 0.20°C/decade in high energy consumption region to 0.13°C/decade in mid energy consumption region. Forty-four stations in high energy consumption region that are exposed to the largest human impact are selected to investigate the impact of energy consumption spatial pattern on temperature change. Results show human impact on temperature trends is highly dependent on spatial pattern of energy consumption. OMR trends decline from energy consumption center to surrounding areas (0.26 to 0.04°C/decade) and get strengthened as the spatial extent of high energy consumption area expands (0.14 to 0.25°C/decade).